Pittsburgh Diocese Asking for Alternative Primatial Oversight
Pittsburgh is joining with other dioceses in asking for 'alternative primatial oversight'
Standing Committee Requests ‘Alternative Primatial Oversight’; Envisions Tenth Province Within Episcopal Church

Members of the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted this morning that Pittsburgh join with other dioceses in appealing to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the primates of the Anglican Communion and the Panel of Reference for “immediate alternative Primatial oversight and pastoral care.”

The Standing committee also published its intent (pending ratification by the diocesan convention this November 3-4) to “withdraw its consent, pursuant to Article VII of the Constitution of the Episcopal Church, to be included in the Third Province of the Episcopal Church” envisioning the drawing together of a new Windsor-compliant Tenth Province in the Episcopal Church. Finally, the standing committee committed itself to “work with and care for all the congregations of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.”

“These decisions are simply in character with those made by our own convention year after year,” said Bishop Duncan. “We are and will remain the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. We are living within the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church. But as the presiding bishop-elect, Katharine Jefferts Schori, herself so helpfully stated during the recently completed General Convention, there are really two bodies within our church, each with its own heart and mind. The decisions made today don’t change who we are in the least, but they do make clear here in Pittsburgh and to the rest of the communion with which body in the Episcopal Church we stand,” he added. the rest